By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter

Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan asked Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte for the U.S. government's help to defuse mounting concerns about the dangers of mad cow disease.

In a meeting in Seoul Thursday, Yu and Negroponte discussed ways of dispelling growing worries among the Korean public about the safety of U.S. beef. ``I asked for the U.S. to play a role in calming the people's worries,'' Yu told reporters after a breakfast meeting with Negroponte at a hotel. ``He said the U.S. government would do everything possible.''

The U.S. official arrived in Seoul Wednesday for a two-day visit as part of his East Asian tour that will also take him to Japan and China.

Upon arrival at Incheon International Airport Wednesday, Negroponte brushed off Koreans' concerns about the safety of U.S. beef. ``My view is that American beef is an excellent product. It's very safe,'' he told reporters. ``We would hope that as you discuss the issue the discussions be based on facts and not on imagined problems or allegations that do not have any scientific foundations.''

During talks with Yu, Negroponte said Seoul and Washington maintain a ``stronger and strategic'' alliance, referring to the summit talks between the leaders of the two nations at the U.S. Camp David presidential retreat, a ministry spokesman said.

Later on Thursday, Negroponte met Deputy Foreign Minister Kwon Jong-rak to discuss the impasse with North Korea's nuclear weapons program, as well as the beef issue. A U.S. delegation, led by Sung Kim, the State Department's top Korea expert, began a trip to Pyongyang earlier in the day to finalize North Korea's declaration of its nuclear activities.

South Korea banned imports of U.S. beef in 2003 due to fears of mad cow disease. It eased the ban in 2006 but still excluded bone-in-beef and other items. The country suspended imports again last October after banned materials were found in a shipment.

Seoul now plans to allow the import of most cuts of beef, including ribs which were previously banned, from cattle aged under 30 months. Imports from cattle aged 30 months or older will also be allowed when the U.S. applies stricter controls to protein-based feed.

Public alarm has been growing about the safety of U.S. beef propelled by a series of reports about mad cow disease. An MBC report last month claimed 94 percent of Koreans have a gene that makes them more susceptible than Americans and British people to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), the human version of mad cow disease, and this makes Koreans two to three more times likely to contract the disease.

gallantjung@koreatimes.co.kr